With delivery and takeaway more popular than ever before, it has been interesting to see the rise in new ideas to get delicious food and drink to hungry customers. Graze boxes are the latest thing, and are popping up all over Instagram – the idea is you get a box of delicious snacks, beautifully arranged, delivered to your door – perfect for a special occasion or gift.

Herts Advertiser: Deanne Sandiford and Emma Grant have launched Grazingly, a box of delicious snacks delivered to your door.Deanne Sandiford and Emma Grant have launched Grazingly, a box of delicious snacks delivered to your door. (Image: Archant)

I ordered a box from Grazingly, aka Emma Grant and Deanne Sandiford, both originally from St Albans. The friends met while working at Tesco head office, and during furlough decided to take the chance to launch their own Graze Box business. I am really impressed with the presentation of the boxes– everything comes in a cardboard box, wrapped in brown string, with the snacks inside arranged creatively. There is a box for most occasions, from brunch to movie nights, and each box serves about four.

The Brunch Box includes waffles, croissants, pink grapefruit, granola, muffins, figs and blueberries. If you are hosting a small baby shower, pre-wedding event or just want something lovely for a birthday, then this would be a lovely thing to arrive – you just have to sort out the coffee!

The Children’s Graze Box looks appealing, with peeled satsumas, carrot sticks, bread sticks, tomatoes, hummus, mini muffins, chocolate buttons etc. You could order a couple of these and your birthday party catering is sorted.

The Strawberries and Cream Graze Box is a lovely idea for a special gift, especially for anyone who is less able to get out at the moment. It includes two mini bottles of Prosecco, homemade fruit scones, jam, cream, strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. For Wimbledon they included chocolate truffles piped to look like tennis balls.

The Movie Night Graze Box (probably the unhealthiest!), would be very popular with teens, and includes tortilla chips with dips, popcorn, mini doughnuts, jelly beans, jazzies, maltesers and other sweets.

We ordered the Cheese and Crudites Graze Box, which arrived promptly at our booked time, on A-level results day. It was packed with perfectly ripe grapes and tomatoes, gouda, double Gloucester, pretzels, olives, hummus, pitta, crackers, cashews, pistachios, dried apricots, pomegranate seeds, chutney, local honey and more.

It was so well-presented we all kept returning to it to take another handful or spoon out a few things to go on a plate. I could see this one being popular for an autumn drinks evening or for a Friday night when you can’t be bothered to cook, and it would go very well with a bottle of red.

Prices are between £24-30 and if you add up how much it would cost if you went out to buy everything yourself, I think the price is reasonable. As it also includes free delivery, I think the Grazingly boxes are a good alternative to flowers, cupcakes and other things that we tend to send or give as gifts.

If there was something you don’t want, or have any dietary requirements, do ask – they were very happy to make sure our box was vegetarian.

Grazingly don’t have a website but you can place orders via their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/Grazingly or email grazingly@hotmail.com. Delivery is free to all over Herts and Beds.